China
Taxi drivers strike in China
More than 5 000 taxi drivers Xining, a city in the western province of Qinghai, went on strike during the night of Saturday the 13th of June over new licensing regulations.
This was followed the next day with a sit-in protest in front of the municipal government headquarters attended by several hundred people, who dispersed at 3pm when officials promised to address the issue. However, although the number of strikers apparently halved on Sunday, protests have continued, with a second sit-in on Monday of a similar size to the first.
58,000 mass incidents in China in first quarter as unrest grows to largest ever recorded
There were 58,000 “mass incidents”, the Chinese state's euphemism for strikes, street protests, roadblocks and other forms of mass protests, in China in the first three months of this year.
Chinaworker.info reports the monitoring agencies in Hong Kong, and cites the pace of job losses and migrants being forced to return home as the main causes. The figure covers protests which involved 25 or more people.
The report said that if this trend continues, then 2009 would break all previous records with over 230,000 'mass incidents', compared to 120,000 in 2008 and 90,000 in 2006.
China in crisis: reason to panic?
Prol-Position's outline and analysis of the development and extent of the 2008-9 financial crisis's impact on China, and its implications for working people in the region and across the world.
Chinese union's plans for 2009 and union vigilance against “hostile forces”
The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has come out with a series of recent policy goals and policies designed to help workers get through the current financial crisis and maintain social stability. But, these policies, however well intentioned, continue to reinforce the ACFTU’s misplaced identity. Meanwhile, an ACFTU vice-chairman has warned about foreign and domestic enemy forces using the economic crisis to infiltrate and cause damage to China’s migrant workers.
On February 12, ACFTU Chairman Wang Zhaoguo gave a speech at an international forum entitled “2009: Economic Globalization and Unions”. In the speech, Wang recapped the CCP and the government’s recent policy measures to combat the economic crisis and to save the economy from going into turmoil.
The third wave of the Chinese labour movement in the post-Mao era
Article from the China Labour Bulletin on the development of class conflict in China in the post-Mao era with particular focus on the spring 2002 protests.
By Trini Leung, China Labour Bulletin, 2 June 2002
Introduction
Conditions of the working classes in China
Article from Monthly Review on the effects of China's economic transformation on the working class since Mao's death.
by Robert Weil
Introduction
More protests in China
There have been further protests by workers in China as the economic crisis prompts attacks on conditions, jobs and pay.
On December 28th ground crew at Hong Kong's international airport walked out in a three-hour protest against cuts to announced bonus payments, grounding flights. The 1,000 workers were employed by Hong Kong Airport Services Ltd. The economic crisis was cited as the reason for the attampted clawbacks by company bosses.
1,000 workers stage sit-in in Chinese factory
Nearly 1,000 workers staged a rare sit-in protest outside a Shanghai factory Tuesday in the latest sign of strain in China's manufacturing industry, which has been hit hard by the economic crisis.
The workers were protesting because managers at the computer and telecoms equipment factory had failed to fully pay at least six months' worth of overtime, bonuses and benefits, one of the organizers said.
"I know the economy is bad now, but none of us can stand being badly treated by our employers," organizer Ding Xiaohua said.
Chinese factory workers riot
More unrest in China following further layoffs in the industrial heartland.
Over 500 rioted yesterday at a toy factory in Dongguan, on the Pearl River Delta in southern China, over pitiful severance payments handed out to 596 workers laid off this month.
Taxi drivers strike in central China
Thousands of taxi drivers took to the streets in the city of Chongqing earlier this week for improved conditions.
The strike, which began on Monday, saw 9,000 of Chongqing's taxis taken out of service as drivers protested over conditions; including high fees charged by their companies, unfair competition from unlicensed cabs, and a shortage of fuel.
